Larry
If LeBeau died in 1896 - this would have to have been a late gun or it was not made by LeBeau himself?
From Igor Robertovich Karklinsh's research
http://shotguncollector.com/2016/03/28/lebeau-courally-between-truth-and-fiction/ it follows that "August Lebeau, the greatest maker of Liege, maker to Emperors" was a myth created by Ferdinand Courally to promote his business. (It's not that August Lebeau never existed or was a bad gunmaker, but he was likely "one of", and not "the").
As a matter of fact, a lot of Lebeau-Courally guns are marked simply "Aug. Lebeau a Liege", and this went on for quite a while, at least until 1904-1905.
By the way, Karklinsh believes Courally started his own numbering sequence from an arbitrary number in the 3xxxx range - 30000 or 31000, or some such - so it should be easy to tell from serial No whether a gun was before or after Lebeau's death and Courally's taking over.
